True Democracy: Empowering Everyday Americans through the Legislative Lottery

Written for everyday Americans, by an everyday American, True Democracy takes a proactive, insightful, and timely look at the current political dilemma confronting our nation, and examines whether our eighteenth-century Constitution can preserve American democratic ideals in the twenty-first century. Is America’s current approach to elective democracy viable in the twenty-first century? Other authors have tackled this question, but have done so with formal acumen. Unfortunately, their fine works have not achieved much success in the general marketplace because of their highly academic style and narrowly targeted audiences. Average middle-class Americans seeking alternatives to our current political situation simply can’t get what they need from these remarkable writings—they need something with a more accessible voice. And that voice sounds out from the masses, not from the political arena. Neither a politician nor a political pundit, but just an ordinary middle-of-the-road American citizen, author Keith W. Miller has spent years observing and studying the American political scene, and has come up with keen insights and conclusions based on what he has witnessed. His debut work, True Democracy, speaks to all Americans, delivering accessible analysis and answers to the political inquiries at the forefront of American debate and at the foundation of movements like Occupy Wall Street. Beyond the critical question of the applicability of our eighteenth-century Constitution to twenty-first century ideals, True Democracy further postulates that our original Constitution was, at best, a compromise that created an aristocratic republic dominated by men of wealth and family connections, which thrives to this day in the guise of Corporate America. It suggests that our current system of government is not a democracy, but rather a representative plutocracy—rule by the rich. But Miller’s work is not to be taken as a condemnation of the rich. True Democracy presents the dominance of wealth as just one symptom of a greater epidemic spawned by our dated Constitution, which even Thomas Jefferson understood would need substantial revisions as the nation progressed. Sure to instigate debate and dialogue, at the bottom line, Miller posits two themes: (1) The rigidity of our current elective form of representative government established by an outdated Constitution is untenable and undemocratic in the twenty-first century; and, (2) We need to look at alternative forms of selecting our government officials and representatives. True Democracy offers a number of alternative forms of selection that are based, in part, on the original Athenian democratic model—the keystone of which is representation through selection, or sortition, rather than election, a process similar to our time-honored method of choosing juries. Miller acknowledges that his recommendations are, by no means, a silver-bullet cure for our political woes. But he does offer True Democracy as an everyday layman’s response, a frank conversation with ordinary Americans about significant political issues facing the nation, in the hope that readers will continue the discussion through thoughtful and civil debate.